Theme: My Street

[Gianluca Drago]

This is our street. shot on film with a 4 x 5. A bit dicey because I had my tripod and ladder set up in the flow of traffic. I usually carry two orange traffic cones to alert drivers of the blockage, but it was early in the morning and I figured traffic would be very light so I didn't pack them.

I don't know why I like this photo so much. Probably because it looks like it was taken by a tree, not by a human. Love it, I can identify with that tree that breathes the sky and the light that nourishes it from above. Photosynthesis pulsing through my arteries and veins.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

My street is actually two streets because my house is at a crossroad. Both of them are quite boring, but nevertheless this is my modest contribution to the theme: railings, lights and shadows, and under the sun geometries. Boring, I warned you.

 

[Gary Gruber]

I don't know why I like this photo so much. Probably because it looks like it was taken by a tree, not by a human. Love it, I can identify with that tree that breathes the sky and the light that nourishes it from above. Photosynthesis pulsing through my arteries and veins.

I wrote a blog post about this tree and its photo:

The Invisible Tree

Complacency has always been my biggest nemesis. Seeing as a person is different from seeing as a photographer. I always try to keep my ‘photo eyes’ wide open, but sometimes little things (like a nearly 30 foot high tree) get away from you. Nothing in nature is fixed or permanent, not even the...

www.gruberwrites.com

 

[Gianluca Drago]

I wrote a blog post about this tree and its photo:

The Invisible Tree

Complacency has always been my biggest nemesis. Seeing as a person is different from seeing as a photographer. I always try to keep my ‘photo eyes’ wide open, but sometimes little things (like a nearly 30 foot high tree) get away from you. Nothing in nature is fixed or permanent, not even the...

www.gruberwrites.com

A truly inspired blog post. Thank you.

 

[Gary Gruber]

A truly inspired blog post. Thank you.

kind of you to say...

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Nice place to live, Gary. I’ve spent 20+ minutes enjoying your website. Excellent work.

 

[Gary Gruber]

Nice place to live, Gary. I’ve spent 20+ minutes enjoying your website. Excellent work.

very kind of you. thanks!

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I live on a corner...

This is looking south down my street during one summer of wildfires. My house is out of frame on the left.

This is looking east. My house is lower right. The sky was interesting that evening.

This is looking northwest from my front yard (in 590nm infrared).

 

[Gary Gruber]

I live on a corner...
View attachment 18493
This is looking south down my street during one summer of wildfires. My house is out of frame on the left.
View attachment 18494
This is looking east. My house is lower right. The sky was interesting that evening.
View attachment 18495
This is looking northwest from my front yard (in 590nm infrared).

While I am not usually a fan of infrared, I think it works well here. As I have mentioned elsewhere, a small ladder to get you a few feet up would prevent the foreground from looming into the image as it does. The empty lot tends to draw attention away from the nice composition here. Get high!

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

My 'street'. I'm starting to try and actually catch some light on it at different times, and make the most of it. It's usually 'just' the way to get somewhere else... but it's not bad really.
Nearing sunset in this case.


I live somewhere behind the hill/ridge you can see the road going over, the first one your eye comes to if you try to follow the road...
Shadow is me on motorbike.


Swapped places... photo taken from the low hill mentioned above!

This landscape can look very barren in a dry summer - we're nearing the end of a wet summer that's starting to dry out a little so there's plenty of grass at present - starting to brown off.
There's no cows here at present - but this is often a cattle paddock. Sometimes they don't want to move off the road...

 

[Len Philpot]

I love open land without (or with only a few) trees. It's like I can breathe better when not hemmed in on every side with suffocating trees. Plus, without too many trees even that slightly rolling terrain takes on more of a hilly nature. If it was tree-covered you'd never see the hills.

But I digress.

I like the warm light and the first one is a classic "move from dark to light" visual motion example.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

I love open land without (or with only a few) trees. It's like I can breathe better when not hemmed in on every side with suffocating trees. Plus, without too many trees even that slightly rolling terrain takes on more of a hilly nature. If it was tree-covered you'd never see the hills.

But I digress.

I like the warm light and the first one is a classic "move from dark to light" visual motion example.

Thanks. I know what you mean about open space. I'm not really too fussed to some extent - perhaps because I get plenty of it! - but I do like it.
Although, when it's hot weather, the sun is overhead and the ground is almost too hot to touch I'm all in favour of trees!

Thanks for the thought about the visual motion - I knew I liked the dark foreground but hadn't really considered why for some reason. I feel the foreground on the left is a bit messy, but 'it is what it is' as a friend of mine is fond of saying.

Both these are stitched panos shot vertically on a Sony Nex5r with Sigma 30mm f2.8. Very small for it's capabilities (in some ways) and fits in a small what-d'you-call-it bag on my belt.
Very handy for my tentative new hobby of motorcycling... currently borrowing a friends bike.

 

[Gord Tomlin]

We live on a typical suburban street, nothing really remarkable, so I decided to focus on the ways that our neighborhood is changing. I hope you don't mind me rambling on between photos.

The first shot of some ice-encrusted tall grass in our yard is after an ice storm in December 2013 that caused widespread power outages in the northeast quarter of the continent. We stayed warm because I had a generator that I hooked up to the furnace, but many people were without power for up to two weeks. I wasn't into photography at the time, but it seemed like an important event to record. Fast forward to 2024, and there is no sign of snow or ice anywhere.

Toronto is in the midst of a housing and affordability crisis right now. Rent controls have been eliminated for units first occupied after 2018, construction is slowing to a crawl because of labor shortages, and new immigrants/refugee claimants/asylum seekers are arriving at the rate of hundreds of thousands a year. There is lots of demand, short supply, and many people have been priced out of the market.

Builders are now often painting the houses they want to demolish all white in the hopes that people will stop noticing them. I shot these ghost houses in 2017. The replacement build still isn't close to being ready for occupancy.

The development below, which is at the end of our street, was also preceded with ghost houses. It claims to be ready for occupancy in, umm, 2023. The 3 in 2023 is stuck over a 2, which in turn IIRC is stuck over a 1.

Many condo unit owners are renting their units out with Airbnb, VRBO, etc., because that allows them to charge more, as well as sidestep tenant rights that would apply with a normal rental or lease. This building, at the other end of our street, has 75 units. There is a constantly shifting number of lockboxes at this side entrance; on this day there were 25.

Just for a change of pace, here is a shot of wave chaos not far from home a few weeks ago when there were gusts up to 90 km/h (~55 mph). Lake Ontario was partying!

 

[Gianluca Drago]

@Gord Tomlin Interesting photos and background narrative. Thanks.